Jason Chen

Some of us can work fine in silence, but others need some kind of background noise—any noise—to help us concentrate. Oftentimes music can be distracting, unless you find something that falls right on the edge of awareness; something that plays without you being conscious of its existence. Brian Eno's classic Music For Airports is the perfect example of that genre.

Eno's album is 48 minutes long, and was released in 1978. The first track is above, and you can find the rest pretty much on any music service. As Wikipedia says:

The music was designed to be continuously looped as a sound installation, with the intent to defuse the tense, anxious atmosphere of an airport terminal. Eno conceived this idea while being stuck at Cologne Bonn Airport in Germany in the mid 70s. He had to spend several hours there and was extremely annoyed by the uninspired sound atmosphere.

Although not the original intent for the composition, it's perfect background noise for when you want to get something done, but still want a bit of something to occupy the aural center of your brain.